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Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader
 
 
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Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader [Paperback]

Frank Partnoy (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)

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Book Description

February 1, 1999
FIASCO is the shocking story of one man's education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn't understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world's top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other.

FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry--the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars.


Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives Revised edition (Financial Times Series) $11.85

Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader + Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives Revised edition (Financial Times Series)


Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140278796
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140278798
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

56 Reviews
5 star:
 (32)
4 star:
 (17)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (56 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A Few good parts, A Few bad ones, Overall worth reading, February 18, 2001
By 
Fred "Technology is your friend." (CHAPEL HILL, NC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader (Paperback)
There are several very interesting parts of this book, the most notable being the chapters (4, 7 - 10) in which Mr. Partnoy gives a high level description of some of the transactions that he was involved in. Some of his anecdotes, particularly those in which he discusses the atmosphere in an investment bank around bonus time (pg.40 - 42, 202 - 205), are pretty amusing and dead on accurate. The author's descriptions of some of his deals are clearly told from a junior banker's perspective, but they do a good job of putting forth what was being done, how it was being done, what everyone's perceived incentives for the transaction were, the work required to get the deal done, what kind of money, and importantly what kind of fees were involved. In this regard, the book offers more than both "Liar's Poker" by Lewis and "When Genius Failed" by Lowenstein.

Like all books written by former investment bankers the book contains liberally sprinkled anecdotes regarding job interviews from hell, the ridiculous daily escapades that can occur on a trading floor, strip clubs, the lack of personal lives, gambling trips and other stories which could easily have been pulled from the pages of Mr. Lewis's book or "Monkey Business" by Rolfe and Troob. All of these shenanigans culminate around the bank's (in this case Morgan Stanley), or more specifically, his group's annual sporting clay outing, FIASCO. The book also suffers from a somewhat poorly defined timeline and the lack of a defining event which drives the story. Due to these faults, it is at times little more than a book about the evils of investment bankers, the ignorance of their customers, all put forward to enforce Mr. Partnoy's somewhat guarded thesis; Derivatives are used by organizations that are legally prevented from investing in certain areas in order to skirt those laws.

This is a good book that could have been better, the occasions where it shine through make it worth reading, but also unfortunately let us know the author could have produced a somewhat better product.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest, most enjoyable book I've read in a long time, September 20, 1999
This review is from: Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader (Paperback)
My younger brother has decided that business is highly amusing, and after reading this book of his, I have to agree. A while back, I picked up and studied a mathematical book on finance (_Investment Science_, by Luenberger, if you're interested; quite good) that covered pricing, immunization strategies, lattices, the Black-Scholes equation for options valuation, and other aspects of modern finance. So I had a decent feel for what derivatives *are* prior to reading this book. However...

I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at a book on such an ostensibly dry subject. Partnoy has an amazingly dry, amoral, detached style of narration that only adds to the surreal quality of the book. He is a gifted writer; I plowed through this absorbing read in the course of a little over a day. I have since started simply buying copies for my friends, since my original strategy of buying one floating copy has failed -- it never returned.

Especially if you are investing for yourself, but even if you are just looking for an engrossing book to pass the time, buy a copy of this book and give it to a friend when you're done. It's hysterical, disturbing, unsettling, and superb.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Ten years later, April 1, 2008
By 
Eric Sabety (Claremont, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader (Paperback)
The book was published in 1997. I found it and read it in a day. Now that we are in the midst of another derivative crisis and we are watching our politicians on both sides of the aisle falling over themselves to bail out Wall Street under the guise of helping the homeowner....I am thinking that this book should have been required reading before the more recent crisis. I don't know if Bernanke has read this but it might be a good idea for him. If the characters and motivation and compensation of these clowns are anything like this book suggests, and the news media suggest it is the case, the average American should be outraged. These salesmen have even forced the US Government to do their will. In any event a short, quick, well written and humorous read that seems strangely prescient.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I sat by the phone and willed it to ring. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
derivatives salesmen, derivatives victims, derivatives salesman, serious fucking problem, mortgage traders, derivatives group, derivatives managers, several salesmen, derivatives deals, repo desk, selling derivatives, derivatives disasters, trust units, derivatives trades, derivatives losses, structured notes, derivatives business, current yield curve, derivatives trader, trading floor, bond salesmen, one salesman, false profits, forward curve, inverse floaters
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Morgan Stanley, First Boston, Wall Street, Orange County, New York, Latin American, Peso Swaps, Fannie Mae, Bankers Trust, Bidyut Sen, Marshal Salant, World Bank, Equity Swap, Imperial Hotel, Merrill Lynch, San Francisco, Brady Bonds, John Mack, Bank of England, Peter Karches, United States, Atlantic City, Eagle Pier, Fed Wire, Republic of Argentina
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